Or so we are we are led to believe and our patriotism challenged if we question to loudly or “politically incorrectly” the state of deterioration of a nation built on the concept of individuality. To insure that the deterioration continues we advocate for the dumbing down of the American populace in favor of “self-esteem raising, lockstep conformity” while managing to sing the virtues of “cultural diversity” at the same time. Unfortunately, somehow the creation of some sort of mass “cognitive dissonance” has left a large portion of the American public paralyzed. We all know the government sucks, yet no one appears to know how, or has the courage, to fix it.For if we are a Nation built on the Freedom of the individual, why is it that we have the largest prison population in the world???
# "The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, some 738 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Russia (611), St Kitts & Nevis (547), U.S. Virgin Is. (521), Turkmenistan (c.489), Belize (487), Cuba (c.487), Palau (478), British Virgin Is. (464), Bermuda (463), Bahamas (462), Cayman Is. (453), American Samoa (446), Belarus (426) and Dominica (419). "However, more than three fifths of countries (61%) have rates below 150 per 100,000. (The rate in England and Wales - 148 per 100,000 of the national population - is above the mid-point in the World List.)"
Source: Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (Seventh Edition)" (London, England: International Centre for Prison Studies, 2007), p. 1.
Recently the Pew Center on the state released the following:
Washington, DC - 02/28/2008 - For the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison—a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety. According to a new report released today by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project
In addition, one in every 53 adults in their 20s is behind bars;
Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project said, “For all the money spent on corrections today, there hasn’t been a clear and convincing return for public safety.”
I believe Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (USA, Ret.), Director, ONDCP, stated more succinctly when he addressed the Opening Plenary Session, National Conference on Drug Abuse Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, September 19, 1996, Washington, DC, stating:
# "We must have law enforcement authorities address the issue because if we do not, prevention, education, and treatment messages will not work very well. But having said that, I also believe that we have created an AMERICAN GULAG.”
Source: Source: Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (USA, Ret.), Director, ONDCP, Keynote Address, Opening Plenary Session, National Conference on Drug Abuse Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, September 19, 1996, Washington, DC, on the web at http://www.nida.nih.gov/MeetSum/CODA/Keynote2.html last accessed May 25, 2007.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: GULAG-The Gulag (Russian: ГУЛАГ, listen (help·info)) was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. It is the acronym for Главное Управление Исправительно-Трудовых Лагерей и колоний, Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitel'no-Trudovykh Lagerey i koloniy, in English: "The Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies" of the NKVD. Over time the term acquired a more general meaning of the whole system of penal labor in the Soviet Union and in some other places (by metonymy).
Gulag: A History, by Anne Applebaum, explains:
“ It was the branch of the State Security that operated the penal system of forced labour camps and associated detention and transit camps and prisons. While these camps housed criminals of all types, the Gulag system has become primarily known as a place for political prisoners and as a mechanism for repressing political opposition to the Soviet state. Though it imprisoned millions, the name became familiar in the West only with the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 1973 The Gulag Archipelago, which likened the scattered camps to a chain of islands.
I have seen General McCaffery speak, he is no dummy. You do not become a General by being dumb. I am quite certain that every U.S. General understands the term “GULAG” and would not use it lightly. And when you consider how we, the land of the free, compare with the rest of the world it gives one pause to wonder if General McCaffery might be more than just a little prescient :
"The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, some 738 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Russia (611), St Kitts & Nevis (547), U.S. Virgin Is. (521), Turkmenistan (c.489), Belize (487), Cuba (c.487), Palau (478), British Virgin Is. (464), Bermuda (463), Bahamas (462), Cayman Is. (453), American Samoa (446), Belarus (426) and Dominica (419). "However, more than three fifths of countries (61%) have rates below 150 per 100,000. (The rate in England and Wales - 148 per 100,000 of the national population - is above the mid-point in the World List.)"
Source: Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (Seventh Edition)" (London, England: International Centre for Prison Studies, 2007), p. 1.
and,
# "More than 9.25 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees (remand prisoners) or as sentenced prisoners. Almost half of these are in the United States (2.19m), China (1.55m plus pretrial detainees and prisoners in 'administrative detention') or Russia (0.87m)." According to the US Census Bureau, the population of the US represents 4.6% of the world's total population (291,450,886 out of a total 6,303,683,217).
Source: Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (Seventh Edition)" (London, England: International Centre for Prison Studies, 2007), p. 1; US Census Bureau, Population Division, from the web at http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html accessed July 8, 2003.
Of course the Law and “ORDER” (in case you missed it emphasis on order) crowd and the Prison Industry lobbyists would insist that this is all for our protection? My question? Whose protection???
The majority of prisoners are currently serving time for either victimless or non-violent crimes:
# The U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska.
Source: John Irwin, Ph. D., Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, America's One Million Nonviolent Prisoners (Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute, 1999), pg. 4.
It doesn't remain that way long though. As is apparent prison systems do not rehabilitate, but in fact, create the need for more and larger prisons.
# "Department of corrections data show that about a fourth of those initially imprisoned for nonviolent crimes are sentenced for a second time for committing a violent offense. Whatever else it reflects, this pattern highlights the possibility that prison serves to transmit violent habits and values rather than to reduce them."
Source: Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., "The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment," American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998), p. 721.
But don't we have rehabilitation programs in the prisons to cut down on recidivism you might ask? Well yes, we do, in name a least. Consider what the state of California, a state with one of the highest prison populations found out about their substance abuse programs:
“As a result of this review, the Office of the Inspector General found a multitude of reasons to explain the failure of the programs, nearly all of which begin and end with poor management by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Office of Substance Abuse Programs. One central finding is that even though the contracts between the state and the in-prison providers require contractors to use the “therapeutic community” substance abuse treatment model, the Office of Substance Abuse Programs not only fails to hold providers accountable for fulfilling that requirement, but also fails to
create the conditions that would allow the therapeutic community model to operate. As a result, many of the providers fall far short of delivering therapeutic community programs. University of California, Los Angeles researchers concluded after one study, in fact, that the in-prison programs reflect a therapeutic community “in name only.”
www.oig.ca.gov/reports/pdf/SubstanceAbusePrograms.pdf
In America the the good ol boy, Bubba needs a job, culture of Corrections is still in force. Perpetrated in part by shows such as MSNBC's “Lock up” that focuses on the “worst” segment of prison populations “every” episode. This is not said to make light of prison life. Many who come out of prison, like those that come home from war, are permanently altered and as a result are more of a threat when they come out of prison than when they went in. This leads to a statement and questions:
1. Our prison systems are not working. Even if you were of the mindset that the best way to deal with crime is to lock up the perpetrators and throw away the key. We are fast approaching the point where economically we simply can not afford them.
# States spent $42.89 billion on Corrections in 2005 alone. To compare, states only spent $24.69 billion on public assistance.
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), 2005 State Expenditure Report (Washington, DC: NASBO, Fall 2006), p. 35, Table 18, and p. 58, Table 32.
# Since the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget has increased by 1,954%. Its budget jumped from $220 million in 1986 to more than $4.3 billion in 2001.
Sources: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1996 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, 1997), p. 20; Executive Office of the President, Budget of the United States Government, FY 2002 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001), p. 134.
# "Despite the investment of more than $5 billion for prison construction over the past decade, the prison system is currently operating at 32 percent over rated capacity, up from 22 percent at the end of 1997. These conditions could potentially jeopardize public safety."
Sources: Executive Office of the President, Budget of the US Government, Fiscal Year 2002 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001), p. 134.
2. Why in a country that lays claim to being the most free country in the world, are we locking up more people than any other country? Is that not some kind of contradiction? Does it make sense to you?
A good percentage of the prison population in this country is the result of individuals acting in a manner that offends the sensibilities of those whose claim to virtue is to preach salvation while engaging in condemnation. A nation that would impeach a President for lying about having an affair while taking no action against a President that would lie us into war and ruin. Prisons populated by those of lesser social and economic status than those that put them there but otherwise, in many cases, no different. In all to many cases no different than those who “guard” them.
There is a disturbing pattern here as we move into an era of “Patriot Acts”, the suspension of Habeas Corpus, “FISA” and more government intrusion into our personal lives. If we are locking up more people than any other country in the world have we moved beyond the fear of becoming a “police state” to actually becoming a “police state”? When will we, the citizenry know? When somebody in the government tells us? Most definitions of a police state include the term “secret police force”. However one might wonder if the same might be accomplished with known government contracted private military forces such as “Blackwater”?
Do not get me wrong. I am not “soft” on crime. However I suspect that taking the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence into consideration I may have many disagreements as to just what constitutes a “CRIME.” Most especially a “crime” deserving of prison. In fact I would propose that it is a crime to steal my tax dollars to pay people to invent more laws that infringe even more on my liberties putting me more at risk of being in violation of the “LAW”!
The question becomes in a society that places more emphasis on emotion than science or fact, what will we do about it? My bet is other than quote Benjamin Franklins, “ Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety,” on numerous blogs and web pages, nothing!
I suspect that the quote has already become nothing more than a “mantra” by which to spiritually soothe our guilt over inaction, much like those little lapel flags worn to demonstrate patriotism by persons who work at places like Veterans hospitals where real patriots get the shaft. In fact I would suspect that many of them would be hard pressed to tell you who Benjamin Franklin was?
(Note: This is written as the state of Florida facing a severe budget crunch is arguing Department of Corrections cuts. My fear and prediction is that the programs proven to be effective at reducing prison populations will be the first to go insuring that we will spending more on perpetuating oppression and less on freeing individuals from the chains of bondage).Add to Technorati Favorites
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